Offshore edifices are increasingly being used for energy production, for example wind power plants. However, erecting the latter in often inaccessible water regions creates additional problems with respect to servicing and maintenance of such edifices, including the delivery of structural and replacement parts. As a rule, expensive diver or crane teams are used for this purpose.
DE 103 08 499 A1 describes how to enable access to the tower of an offshore wind power plant through an underwater airlock from a submarine. However, this still remains a very cost-intensive measure.
DE 199 21 312 A1 describes a device for deploying and retrieving heavy technical marine equipment, which is intended to counter the risk of oscillation. To this end, the outboard of a ship has a vertical rail system with a forklift carriage that can traverse from the deck of the ship to under the waterline, the forks of which can be swiveled laterally away. The deck of the ship has a horizontal rail system with a device carriage, on which the heavy measuring equipment can be transported as far as the forklift carriage. The heavy measuring equipment is deployed or retrieved in the water after the forklift carriage has moved under the waterline by laterally swiveling away the forks of the forklift carriage. Hence, the vertical rail system is used to precisely guide the measuring equipment; the submerging and retrieval processes take place using a single drive.
EP 0 381 665 A2 describes a device for manufacturing strands of individual elements underwater, in which the individual elements are first transported on a device carriage along a vertical rail system on the floor of the body of water, taken from there by another device carriage on a horizontal rail system, and transported to the already pre-assembled individual segments. A device for assembling and servicing underwater power plants is described in DE 10 2008 020 965 A1, in which the components are delivered with a traversable underwater carriage with a crane system. The underwater carriage is provided with a horizontal rail system for pushing the components onto the crane system. DE 203 10 089 U1 describes a tower of a wind power plant with a rail system that circulates horizontally above the waterline, in which a device can be suspended in a desired position along the periphery of the tower.
GB 2 270 664 A describes a generic device for using technical equipment underwater, wherein an anchoring system is involved in particular. The latter encompasses several guide rails extending underwater from above the waterline, which in the exemplary embodiment shown are secured to the post of a footbridge standing in the water. A device carriage has a running unit, which abuts the guide rail with guide rollers. The guide rails can here be C-shaped, so that the guide rollers abut against the front C-legs from the inside. An I-shaped formation is also possible for the guide rails. The running unit is connected with a basic unit, which itself bears a reception flange for a device. In the exemplary embodiment, a fender is disclosed as the device, which can then be used to berth a boat on the footbridge independently of the tide. The device carriage then traverses the vertical guide rail based on the tide, wherein no veering and hoisting equipment is provided. Exclusively the movement of the boat generates the traveling motion. However, the boat movements, buoyancy and currents can result in horizontal and vertical tilting of the running unit of the device carriage in the guide rail. Further, the device can only work in the waterline region, since the traveling motions of the device carriage are generated exclusively by the boat movements. The device carriage is not designed to traverse the deeper underwater regions too. If the device carriage with the fender accidentally sinks into the water, the buoyancy of the fender will also inevitably cause the running unit of the device carriage to tile horizontally and vertically in the guide rail.